Very nice puzzle. Excellent theme. Quite challenging for me though. Had to seek Google for help. Definitely more rewarding than last week's simple "Face It". The only minor quibble I have is the clue for HIT (53A: SRO indication). SRO indicates an abbreviated answer, but HIT is not.

Across:

8A: Character on "The A-Team": MR. T. This guy often wears too much gold.

14A: Brother of Rebecca: LABAN. I forgot his name completely. He is the father of Leah and Rachel, Jacob's father-in-law. Who is his wife then?

38 comments:

Kazie,Google crashed yesterday morning for over 30 minutes worldwide. I was warned "This site may harm your computer" when I tried to search for certain words on my own blog. Letter e-ending words also indicate their feminine nature, right?

Dick,Thanks for the LIT list. I still think abbreviated clues should not be used when other options are readily available.

Gator Mom, Lemonade, Linda, Dick et al,Thanks for the explanation on "love" and "in love". I used to think "I love you" and "I'm in love with you" is the same.

c.c.,Thanks for renewing my confidence in google. Just now I found the following article on the German social security system under Bismarck. Thank you.

"Wish you were mine" in French? I'd suggest "Je souhaite que tu soyais à moi", but it is just a guess, and doesn't sound idiomatic to me. "soyais" is imperfect subjunctive, the subjunctive mood being required after verbs of wishing, hoping and uncertainty.

CC, here is some information I found on a Nickelodeon in South Carolina.

The Nickelodeon Theatre is a small 77 seat store front theater located in Columbia SC on the corner of Main and Pendleton Streets, adjacent to the campus of the University of South Carolina. In operation since 1979, "the Nick", run by the Columbia Film Society, is home to two film screenings each evening and an additional matinee three days a week. The Nick is the only non-profit art house film theater in South Carolina and is the home for 25,000 filmgoers each year.

I grew up watching my parents solve crossword puzzles everyday, with Sunday morning spent with breakfast in bed and the New York Times puzzles, that went back and forth between them. The only aid they had was a crossword puzzle dictionary, which had obscure words like ERS, which was always the answer for BITTER VETCH (a favorite fill in word by Will Weng of the Times). I never knew what BITTER VETCH was but I knew what answer to put in the puzzle. Now with google and wikipedia, I know it is a legume. Well happy Super Bowl to you all; the only thing we know for certain isone quarterback will win his second...

I was surprised that I didn't have to do any googling. The perps got the ones I didn't know.

I agree that Pear and Peer are a stretch. The others, e.g., morel and moral, sound the same.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that Arizona is going to win the Super Bowl.

Possum is also seen as Opossum.

When you rig something up it is usually temporary.

Rutger Hauer - played William Erle, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises in Batman Begins. Also played the terrorist Wolfgar in the Sly Stallone flick, Nighthawks. Most will probably remember him for his performance in The Hitcher.

Lignum is Latin for wood. The chemical compound, lignin gets its name from this word as well. Lignin is an integral part of the seconday cell wall of plants and is the second most abundant organic polymer on earth (cellulose is first).

Corundum is aluminum oxide (Al2O3) which is also called alumina. Alundum is a substance made of fused alumina. I guess you could say that alundum is a "child" of corundum.

Today is Super Bowl XLIII!!!!!! It is also National Freedom Day, Be An Encourager Day, G.I. Joe Day, Give Kids A Smile Day, Hula In The Coola Day, Robinson Crusoe Day, and Spunky Old Broads Day. Why so many on February 1st? Your guess is as good as mine.

I also own two XW puzzle dictionaries. My mother used one for so long the edges of the pages were worn down in the middle, as are those of the OED that I inherited from her.

Before there were XW's, her parents used to entertain themselves by trying to trick each other with words from the dictionary. They'd take turns with the dictionary and ask for the definition of obscure words. This was before regular radio broadcasts or, of course, TV.

C.C. I had a feeling you might ask about salt-rose. I'm just not sure, except that Bolivian rose salt is used both for seasoning food and for bath salts. Apparently, it is considered to be unusual and has exceptional flavor. The poet, Pablo Neruda was from Chile, which shares a border with Bolivia, so this may be what he was referring to.

Argyle, LOL, you got the last word on Riata/Reata last night. Somebody is going to have to rent the Giant DVD to settle the issue.

Yes, C.C. It is well known that James Dean was gay. As with many male movie stars through the 80's, the studios set up fake romances for them with pretty starlets so that the public wouldn't know about their private lives. The fan magazines usually had stories that said, Rock, Tab, Richard and Jimmy were "looking, but just hadn't found that perfect girl." Happily, nowadays, actors like Rupert Everett and Neil Patrick Harris don't have to hide their personal lives and can still get roles as sexy, womanizing leading men (they are actors, after all. :o)

CC: the first "spell" really was a virus. It was the second one we named "Bryan". :) "Lindo" is the Spanish word to go with masculine nouns/pronouns. "Linda" of course goes with the feminine. Didn`t understand the reference you made to my name ending in "a" until I re-read your posts...No thank you. Never wanted to be one of many wives (ala Marc Anthony). I like being the only fish in my pond!

Kazie: There is actually a game in which you name an obscure word, each player makes up a plausible definition (one player gives the real one) and the designated player has to choose which answer is correct. Points are kept. It is FUN! Better than Scrabble! And all you need to play is a good dictionary and pen and paper.

We only get the NYT puzzle on Sunday...it looses it`s punch, though, because they print the solve on the same page!

Let me know how any of you like the instant potato soup mix...very warming and easy in cold weather.

Since Mickey Rourke is up for an Oscar this year, there have been lots of articles about The Diner, where he was 1st recognized( late 50's, early 60's). Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg and Paul Reisner were also in the film. It's about a group of close friends who are sitting around all night in a diner talking about the changes that will happen , as one of them is getting married.

grew up with a nunnery on one end of the street, and a catholic school on the other end. The parade was always on, and it was great when my two year old niece came out and said, :Look at all the kings."

Here is a bit of trivia: Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately, without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional "pain relievers." My Bob says it works for him.

Linda,we also played that dictionary game; the kids even liked it at school.

JD,The advantage of having the slides on a CD is that you might access them more often if they were something you'd want to look at. I have thousands of slides from trips to Europe and other places, but never want to drag the projector and all that equipment out to look at them. I've digitalized a few that I wanted for a powerpoint before, and it makes it easy to edit them and improve the clarity too. I should really do the rest too and follow my own advice.

For those of you watching the Super Bowl (I won't be - am totally disinterested): watch for Edgerrin James. He's from Immokalee, the poorest town in my county.(It's mostly itinerant farm labor.) He rose from nothing and has done well as a running back, whatever that is. He has bought 200 tickets for the game for family and friends, and wishes he could bring his whole town to it. He says he's playing basically for free having spent so much on tickets.

I like all your answers...(the tried and true one is a Nun rolling down the hill and the cleverist one is the five old TV`s)...but. being who I am...I would say the answer is "What I keep shouting to people who want to bend the rules until there are only shades of gray!"

Sallie,I agree about the lack of interest in football, but I might turn it on to see what all the excitement is about and watch the ads, which apparently are often funny--it will be the only time I do watch any ads. Besides, there's nothing else on tonight, but if I get too bored, I might watch a DVD.

I finished today’s puzzle with only one wrong letter – I had reeSe and Sesicle instead of REEVE and VESICLE. The cross of OLIG and LIGN and ALATE slowed me down a bit, and there a few words I never seem to remember no matter how many times I run across them - ESA (NASA partner) and AGLET (shoelace tip).

I was unfamiliar with Paul Anka’s Eso Beso but do remember songs like his Puppy Love.

I only watch one game per year and this is it. No company this time around, but G.A.H. is happy about that. He doesn't want to be distracted by a lot of partying. We do have some good chips and dips for snacks and some BBQ chicken for dinner. Husband is rooting for the Steelers, so I'm going with Arizona....just because.

Very late I know, but I don't get the Sunday TMS. If I had, I am sure I would have gotten a couple of wrong letters for VESICLE. After the NYT puzzle (they print the solve on mine, too, Linda, but it doesn't lose any punch if I don't look at it!), the trip to the store, dinner and waiting for the former Mayor to call ... well ... here I am.

Promiseme, if someone has a BAD headache, you wouldn't be drinking the Gatorade for pleasure.YUK! My husband always keeps one handy for the beginning of a migraine. Me? I don't drink it, nor anything carbonated. Coke is so bad that it will clean away rust!

Hi CC et al,Could not do the CW today as Chicago Tribune does not have it online on Sundays :-(. Anyway shall comment on the comments. SHIV or SHIVA is more common as compared to SIVA. The statue of SHIVA that you have shown in the link is here in Bangalore the town where I stay (though I have not gone and seen it myself!!!). There is a vast difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, the main one that I can think of is the many many many .... Gods that we Hindus have including a whole lot of re-incarnations to add